Please Stop Laughing at Us . . .: One Survivor's Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying [Paperback]

 

 

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After writing her bestselling work Please Stop Laughing At Me...: One Woman's Inspirational Story, former publicist Jodee Blanco jotted down a kind of 'post-memoir memoir', an update on her life experiences after that book hit it big. This book follows her life story as she tries to tell people about her experiences in any way she can- speaking to student bodies, teachers, customers at Border's shops, and so on. The title is very apt since this book extends the personal experiences in her previous one more broadly. She comes up with various terms and ideas about bullying that, even as a layman, she pitches to educators and to parents.

For the average reader (without much of a background in the issues), the book appears to be a mixed bag, but an interesting one. It mashes together incoherently very dull slice-of-life moments, frequent 'flashbacks' to the previous book, ideological prognosticating about what the American school system gets wrong, a constant stream-of-consciousness narrative, and horrifying stories about bullied/bullying kids that she meets. It found it extremely hard not to skip ahead all the time, even though I knew that I would probably miss out on a notable insight that Blanco makes.

The lack of an organized, clear writing comes up all the time. For example, Blanco mentions how she sometimes dreads hanging out with the people who used to bully her. She writes how, say, X person was the inspiration for person Y in the last book, but she never spells out what names are fictional and which are not- only dropping opaque references here and there. It's annoying reading about something she says to 'Clark' and then having to wonder: "Is this 'Clark' the same as that other guy from her first book? Is this 'Clark' the one that made that remark just a few pages ago?"

Blanco spends a great deal discussing her storybook romance with Mitch, the troubled popular kid that she liked from the last book. While it makes sense for her to write about something so important in her life, she seems to go on and on about this in a way that makes you think that you're reading a 12-year-old's diary. She also brings up religious references suddenly and then leaves those hanging, which leaves the reader thinking: "If your Christian faith is the glue keeping your life together, why aren't you talking about it in any detail?" She also makes up terms as she goes along, such as 'Ancient Child' and 'Elite Tormentor', that she frustratingly refuses to explain with real, factual references. There's a gigantic body of work out there in the media and in the academic world about explaining bullying; Blanco chooses to ignore this. As well, she's leaving out so much. What about children who don't identify as the "sages beyond their years" "persecuted for being different" and are bullied, don't they matter? Don't they deserve sympathy? Blanco does not even think of it. She gives her sympathy to goths, obese kids, gay kids, the disabled, and so on while ignoring that ordinary, average-type kids can bleed too.

Ultimately, I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. However, they should not be expecting something that's either an extension of her first books.

I ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. I was very impressed by the author, who has done noble work and who, in the interview, gave a fascinating analysis of the kind of child who is bullied (the "old soul" who doesn't fit in, the compassionate one, the sensitive one) and spoke eloquently about the kinds of actions the bullied child and his or her parents should take. I assumed that the book would elaborate on these key topics, and I wanted to be able to share these insights with my daughter, whose child fits the author's description of the child vulnerable to bullying. Fortunately I had the book sent to me rather than to my daughter, who would have been truly puzzled about why I had sent it to her. The book turns out to be a hyped-up narrative, in diary form, of the author's response to fame and to the pressures of having written a best-seller. The stories center on her--what it's like to reveal yourself to a high-school audience, what it's like to have damaged kids needing your advice, what it's like to fall in love with a highschool heartthrob and then almost lose him. The book is riddled with her recorded anxieties and sleepless nights and frantic phone calls and moments of elation. There's one mention of the "old soul" characteristic and one brief paragraph about actions that a bullied child and his or parents should take. I admire the author's courage, and I sense that her work is having an impact on attitudes to bullying. The topic is now making its way into prime-time TV drama. But parents with a child being bullied or vulnerable to bullying would be better advised to track down the interview than to buy the book. Too bad.

Compared to radio interviews and programs about this book and its predecessor, the book was somewhat disappointing. It primarily recounts the author's experiences, with only a chapter or two having any real substance as to how to deal with bullying.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational Story--Practical Advice Regarding Bullying
This is her second book dealing with how she recovered from all the bullying and went to talk at schools around the country to help other kids who were being bullied and help the... Read more

Published on July 23, 2008 by Karen Zemek

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Woman
I hated to see this book end. It was like talking to my new best friend. Finally, somebody got it right telling the story of being bullied. I admire Jodee. Read more

Published on July 3, 2008 by Gerard F. Zemek

5.0 out of 5 stars Bullying is no laughing matter
Applause for Jodee for telling her story to help youth and teens to understand the pain of bullying and harassment behavior. Read more

Published on March 4, 2008 by Bookworm

1.0 out of 5 stars Victimization Is The Latest Cottage Industry
Apparently, the book sales of "Please Stop Laughing At Me" necessitated this sequel with the pronoun change. Read more

Published on March 4, 2008 by Bellerophon

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING
This book is absolutely amazing. Once I started i couldn't put the book down and though I never bullied or was bullied, this book really made me think. Read more

Published on February 26, 2008 by Ashley

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book!
I love this book. It let me see that I was not the only person who ever got bullied. I think with all the school violence going on these days, this is really important because so... Read more

Published on February 22, 2008 by Primo

4.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable sequel to a valuable life book!
Jodee, you have done it again. Your insight and your inspired words will make a difference in the world. Read more

Published on February 17, 2008 by Erin McNeely

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